Liontamer   Judges ⚖️

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/dkc.rsn - "Aquatic Ambiance" (dkc-08.spc) Sounds are all low quality/MIDI-grade. Basically the composition of the original with some weak beats added. Beats change at 2:33. SOme orginal notes at the very end from 4:15-4:17. Bravo. Not anything Overrideable IMO, as he tried to change the feel here, but this did nothing to creatively rearrange the original. Nothing but inferior to the original. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/FFX_psf2.rar - 407 "Wandering Flames" The pads used in the intro sound like very default sounds, and the sequenced guitar at :12 sounds very stiff and mechanical. The beats brought in at :34 are downbeat, but very default-sounding and looped to no end. I like the little additions here at :57. The way the source tune was handled, you attempted to go the expansion route, though I wish you didn't basically replicate "Wandering Flames" and then add stuff on top, as I'm sure there are ways to even change the arrangement of that. I liked the use of the piano at 2:04 to remix 1:55-2:08 of the source tune. Decent ending. The pad layering throughout the track was decent, though the pads during the fadeout were very exposed for their low quality. The track is put together fairly decently, but the way the pads move doesn't quite sound smooth (hard to articulate, but the way the pads move in the original was smoother), and the guitar and piano both sound defaulty and mechanical, the guitar being much more negatively impactful to me. The beats are too plain-sounding and unprocessed, and I feel they don't blend in well with the track. Needs to sound less defaulty and given more attention to fine-tuning the sounds. As it stands, the samples in play are of an inferior quality to the original, and aren't used as well as they could be. Good stuff so far, Seth, but it really needs polish to make everything more cohesive. NO (resubmit)

5Y please, since the style is so unorthodox. Don't want anyone coming out of the woodwork late saying they would have NOed.

Thanks a lot to K1 for providing the Genesis MIDIs. Personally, I could only identify the Dr. Grant and Map themes in here, but even just considering those two I felt there was enough arrangement to pass. I would appreciate some clarification mainly on where the Powerstation theme factors in. (2:10-2:36?) Didn't hear the Game Over theme anywhere either. In any case, the first sax squeak from :02-:04 initially made me think this was gonna be awful. The fact that it goes for a whole 1:10 before getting into the meat of the arrangement almost had me preemptively NO it, but I try not vote that way and kept on listening only to find some seriously sweet arrangement going on afterwards. I'd appreciate if other Js didn't impulsively vote. When the sax wasn't squeaking, I wasn't getting the Raptor vibe, but I'll readily admit the intro grew on me as I listened to it more. I'm not hailing it as the second coming on any level, as I don't mean to give this more credit than it deserves. It's not "bad", but frankly it's not that great. But it's a ballsy intro, and I really appreciate it on that level. While all of the sax notes didn't work with the intented Raptor imagery, I liked the concept there. Is the intro here inspired by or mimicking some sort of sequence in the game after you die? Anyway, once we got beyond 1:10, the arrangement really kicked in and it was pretty sweet, IMO. Much more coherent phrasing and structure, not to mention style. The atmosphere really did work much like an anime/film noir hybrid deal, so I was feeling that a lot. The orchestral sampling was done pretty effectively, IMO, and I really liked what I heard there. Butt [sic]...the recording/rendering sounds like crud. For a 160kbps track, it sure sounded like the bitrate was a lot lower. Tons of hiss everywhere, and no high-end frequencies to speak of. If you can fix it up, bro, you get a YES. If not, I gotta say that it's a NO-go. You really need to make sure not to drop this one; it's a great concept. NO (fix shoddy production, resubmit)

OMG Jesse's Taub, u got Metroid bias againz!

The acronym the band uses for themselves is "NES4", as Neskvartetten means "NES Quartet". Smooth work by these bros as usual, you really can't go wrong with them. Glad to see this piece finally make its way to the site, and I'm always looking forward to more.

http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets/loz3.rsn - "Hyrule Castle" (loz3-14.spc) [:57-1:14, 2:13-2:42, 5:48-6:01] http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 01 "Title Theme" (2:46-3:30) & 03 "Deku Tree" (4:02-4:35, 4:51-5:48) The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker OST - 103 "The Legendary Hero" (1:27-1:52) :00-:46 & 3:38-4:01? Just don't recognize which source tune those parts go to, even though I recognize them as being from Zelda material. I'd appreciate clarification on the source info listed above. Standing Man/FM/Zas, you really gotta pick one handle and stick with it! Played this one just a few days ago on VGF63. Heard it on account of round 3 of Splendid Performance this summer, and it was some nice work. You really did a great job of overhauling the concept here and letting things flow much more naturally here from source tune to source tune. I really can't listen to everything and give the detailed analysis of how all the source tunes were used, so forget that. Offhand, I felt the transition at 1:56 was too abrupt. And on little things, there's a light pop in the right channel at 5:03, a louder pop in the left at 5:16, and the ending abruptly cuts off at 6:01. :'-( That ending really needs a fix if it's posted. In any case, the way the samples were used was pretty strong; much more organic sounding than last time. Some occasional artificial-sounding spots, but nothing significantly impactful as to hurt the track. Beyond using your already strong samples much more effectively, there was just tons more thought and care put into fashioning the arrangement, which is where the real substance was. "Deku Tree" served well as the meat of the track, and I particularly liked your interpretation of the Ocarina of Time title theme. Good work as a whole, and I'm glad you weren't discouraged by the previous decision. An improvement literally by leaps and bounds over the older version, Mike! YES

http://www.doom2.net/~doomdepot/music/doom%201%20&%202%20midis.zip - "E1M2 - Nuclear Plant" & "E3M3 - Pandemonium" Pretty much the same stuff going on here as last time around, re: the intro. Good sounds there. Stuff finally kicked in at :49. Still wish the original on bassline was more of the focal point, because its easy for it to get lost in there. Nonetheless, the production was a lot stronger. Seemed to be some dissonance going on after 2:04 with the way the synth lead, the supporting synth, and the strings were combining; didn't sound good. I did like the source melody being brought up so strongly at 2:11. VERY pimp sounding. Good transition at 2:34 into the next section, though I can totally hear how that one new supporting synth starting at 2:32 that was referencing "Pandemonium (E3M3)" was clashing notes with the other material. Percussion patterns never changed from 2:33-3:37. They work well, but could use some more slight timing variations on the beats, like TO also suggested. NICE section at 3:37, though that final ending at 4:00 was almost too "nice-sounding" and sweet to work as an appropriate ending. Just my opinion, but it didn't seem to fit the style. I agree with TO that there's a lot of good stuff going on here. Like I told you when I PMed you, David, I think this new version sounds WAY better. Very sharp/clear and possessing good power. The arrangement just needs a more direction & focus, the percussion patterns need more variation (but do it subtlely; it doesn't need an overhaul), the clashing notes need to be fixed, and the ending could resolve better (but it's not a major issue). EDIT: LOL! TO told me that the ending was actually a suggestion of his. The whole thing seemed dark and tense, then....flowers. I'd rather it didn't end like that, but I can chock it up to style. This one could definitely be the one, as long as you put a good deal of care into one last resubmission. I'd stress running any major revisions by some people to make sure you're addressing some of these issues. I wanna stress again that this was a MAJOR improvement and you're definitely going in the right direction. If you need to take some time off it before looking at it again, feel free. NO (definitely resubmit)

http://exotica.fix.no/tunes/archive/C64Music/GAMES/A-F/Froehn.sid - Subtune 1/3 Meh. I hate that generic synth lead at :40. Nothing creative in the synth design. Is the track really supposed to sound this cluttered? Maybe it's just me, but I honestly wasn't hearing anything sounding well-balanced. Whoa, 1:20-1:31 was nothing but clutter, before going for another iteration of the melody. Some new stuff came in at 1:43. Heh, the cheesy chipmunk SFX at 1:54. Wow. Another iteration of the melody at 2:05 in a higher key. The clutter is just putting me way off. I'd like to thing there was a way to make something full-sounding and fast-paced without it sounding too smooshed together. The generic sounds and textures weren't helping either. It just prevents the track from sounding unique. Nice transition at 2:39-2:45 going back to the source melody. The melody came back for one last run at 2:45 for the finish. Wish more was going on with the melodic content beyond the speed-up and genre adaptation. A lot more could have been done with it. Too bad too, I've been looking for LMan to submit something for the longest time, but I don't think this is anywhere near his strongest work. Don't wanna take away from Max & Markus doing this fun collab, because what it has in energy and fun and all that, it's just lacking everywhere else. NO

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/megaman2.zip - Tracks 22 (Ending) & 23 (Credits 1) Heh. Cool intro with the occasional SFX. Nice belltone-ish stuff at :18. Still waiting for the source tune after this extended intro. Here it was at :55 with the Ending theme. Source tune is rather low in volume at 1:13, the whole way through, but it's audible and my gripe's more on personal preference. Melody some liberal turns. At 1:33, I unfortunately don't recognize that as being from the game. Nice lo-fi transition at 1:58, though the sounds chosen were kind of thin. Nice work at 2:09 moving to a new section playing the Credits 1 theme on that pad along with that percussion. Still sounding rather sparse, but I'm slowly coming around to Wingless's asessment that there's enough going on. The banjo at 3:23 really wasn't my cup of tea, but it was a good idea to change up the flow. Decent stuff at 3:42 going for a sound that reminds me of COUCOU's Puzzle Bobble mix, "Silver Dragon's Bubbles." Good stuff for the last section closing with the fadeout ending. My vote was a little difficult, because I could always envision more going on here. The percussion patterns in particular should have had more variation, but the other elements were strong and there was always a great deal of evolution in the arrangement. The sparseness is an idea that normally misses, but the atmosphere here was strong. Well put-together and good work, Steve. Glad to see you submit some material our way. Been a fan of Metroid "Drifting in a Kelp Sea" for quite a while. YES

Wikipedia entry, baby.

http://snesmusic.org/spcsets/sm.rsn - "Brinstar Red Soil Swampy Area" (sm-20.spc) Sounds weren't too strong on that lead during the intro, but the distortion and atmosphere was good. The HAL 9000 clips at :44 were decently used and have some effects on them to help them sit better in the track, althought they still didn't mesh quite as well as possible, IMO. The source tune came in at 1:09; sounds like it was sampled right from the SPC with the synths built around it. More vox at 1:47 while the lead gets some effects on it. Still waiting for more things to happen. Finally got rid of that SPC-like usage of the melody at 2:12 and just stuck with the rock. Glad for that, otherwise that could have been an issue. The percussion ideas here were basic, but I liked how they were used. They really did a great job of driving the track along. The feel was changed up at 2:38 with some new ideas wrapped around the melody. Then we get some playing around with the rhythms at 3:04 which was good. More Hal SFX at 3:17. Godd transition at 3:53. The arrangement as it were is pretty basic; it really sticks to the idea of the original, but presents a lot of flair and interpretation with the expansion here. Took a little getting used to, but the crunchy atmosphere created here worked pretty well. Really fits into the darker edge that a lot of Metroid rock mix fans enjoy. The Hal SFX was a bit cheesy, but it's not too much of a hit, plus while the arrangement's tempo didn't change much, there was a fair amount of variation in the piece. The production really had the potential to turn into absolute dogshit of a mess with an idea like this, so props for creating something that sounds very full, distorted, and industrial without allowing the track to lose clarity. This is how you do it; maybe it's just me, but I feel a lot of people could learn from this. Track really grew on me. Nice work, Ty, and good luck with the rest of the vote. YES

Just to comment very briefly on your punk Gerudo mix, the synth guitar just sounds tacky and inhuman. The arrangement level though is better than this Saria mix. Not passable anyway, but don't sub more than one track in your letter. http://www.zophar.net/usf/lozusf.rar - 35 "Lost Woods" Hearing pretty generic synth/trance stuff, though I liked that stuff going on at :32. Some bleh oomp-tss stuff was added at :46. I liked the fact that more ideas were being gradually introduced into the track (:46, :51, :59, 1:13, etc.) to give the track a sense of build, even if it had shit to do with the source material. Of course, there's time for that later. Source came in at 1:58 with a really generic lead and a very conservative application. You can already tell it's not gonna get any more creative than this in regards to the melody. Melody's still chugging along at 2:59, applying the same formula of gradually adding in more supporting elements. Some stuff going on with the chorus at 3:30 that at least provided a change of pace. The back to the melody at 3:59 with some new supporting instrumentation to move away from the trance feel. Alright, I definitely wasn't expecting that. More stuff going on with some weird stuff at 4:30. Way too long for what this was. Cut the fat. Good stuff on a basic level, but there's NEVER any melodic interpretation done. Gotta be more innovate than this. Props on a stronger second half, from a creative standpoint, but even there the melody was left verbatim. NO

http://www.tzone.org/~llin/psf/packs2/BoF3_psf.rar - 104 "Casually" I got a hold of Josh to clarify the source tunes here, and it's actually just one. "Casually" is also known as Overworld Theme 1 to some people, but the way the track was listed made it unclear he was referring to the same track, so I fixed the info. The track at times feels a bit empty-sounding on account of the minimalist, bossa nova take here, so it takes getting used to. Good sounds for the intro nonetheless. I like the understated e-piano like stuff at :11, and the piano at :31 was ok. Still mechanical-sounding, which is a hit here on account of it being so prominent. Gray heard some light clipping in places, but it wasn't a bother to me. Better stuff at 1:12 now with the strings providing some light support to help fill things out without getting invasive, though they could have been slightly louder. Would have been much better to have some more overt variations to the percussion pattern sooner, instead of having to wait until 1:33. Synth solo at 1:34 tackles 1:05-1:21 of the source tune and does a great job of expanding it and supplementing it with some original riffs. Very nice stuff with the lead at 2:15-2:33 as well, before moving back to the piano at 2:36 for the close. The piano sounded a lot more natural there as opposed to the beginning. The ending was indeed too quick/sudden, so I would have liked to have heard that given some more time before the fadeout. I liked TO's vote a lot here, as he pointed out issues that, if addressed, would have brought out more potential here. Frankly, I don't think a NO is wrong here, cuz while the piece is quality it does have those nagging issues of the percussion being looped for too long, the piano being mechanical and conservative, and the ending not working well on account of fading out too quickly (though there's nothing wrong with fadeouts in general). I have no problems with this passing, and I think it's a chill and enjoyable piece. The second half being stronger helps this out, but I think some quick tweaking would make the overall package very solid. I'd like to go to 5 votes to get more opinions, please. NO (borderline)

That's called an homage. Wrong in both cases; "Force Majeure" is a legal term, in French, for "act of god". In this case, whoever 409 are simply used the exact phrase - not very creative, but fine by me. I didn't know of their track when I suggested the name to Dan, but they hardly have ownership over using it for music, as I'd imagine it's been done before by someone. The translation is something like "Majestic Force" or "Greater Force", so my idea was to simply to make it "Triforce" instead, as the song itself is rather majestic, and certainly great. The legal concept of Force Majeure is described at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Force_majeure. Hey, you shutup, you.

Never posted in here either for some reason. Great stuff that brings a unique presence to the site. Not familiar with Reich, but anything that inspired this work is bound to be good. Great stuff, Chris, keep it coming!

You may wanna advertise your site in your sig, or at least your profile, Anders.

Can't think of why I didn't comment on this other than the fact that I don't frequent ReViews too often. But I remember back when this came out that Protricity felt this was Rayza's best work here so far, and I definitely agree with that, though it's a close call now with Sonik Electronik out there. In any case, the thing I appreciated the most was how skillfully Hayden mixed in the source tune with his own original ideas. The new material was worked in so seamlessly that I was surprised to listen to the original later and realize that some of the stuff in there wasn't derived from the game soundtrack. Always a good listen after a couple of years.

TXAI IS PISSED EVER!!!!

Dis mix iz sexy.

I'll bring this up with dave tonight and Israfel's mix as well, both of which have been gathering more mold than liontamer's fro. "I break-a yo face!" [/Lady and the Tramp]

LT Edit - Original decision: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=64173 Hey man, Sorry to bother you, but RoeTaKa told me I could pm you a revised edition of my DSoP track & you'd post it on the que list. I'm not really sure but I though I'd give it a shot. If by chance I can do... what I'm attempting to do here's my info. Contact Details Handle: Joker Name: David L. Puga Email: Davejkr@prodigy.net Forum Profile: 16059(?) ReMix info Game: DooM Song: The Imp's Song E1M2 Comments: So, I made the original Industrial Strength for th DSoP. But, to my slight dismay, a ,ot of people were unhappy that I strayed to far from the original. So I went back to the mix, even though I thought I was done with it. Turned out I still had some ideas for it, & with the help of TO I made the I.M.P. Edit. The first section after the intro has my own version of the original, then after the break I decided to bring in a more true to the original bassline & synth combo. It really does sound a lot different than the DSoP version, blah blahblah. I've written enough. P.S. The I.M.P. stands for "I made poopies!" So it's the "I made poopies Edit."

http://www.zophar.net/nsf/smb1.zip - Tracks 1 ("Overworld BGM"), 5 ("Invincible BGM"), 2 ("Underground BGM"), 6 ("Successfully Reached the Flag") & 9 ("Game Over") Certainly an improvement from the first version. The drums are better, but do in fact need more variation instead of just being a timekeeper, and need more power. The lead guitar is way too quiet and really needs to cut through more. Right now it just sounds too dull (not in the performance, but the sound quality), as if some of the higher frequencies were cut out. The lead also sounds too far in the back of the room, and the percussion is louder, which isn't working. Otherwise, the arrangement is where it needs to be. Still could have some fat trimmed off it near the end, but y'all are keeping the core of the song intact, and I can respect that. Personally, I think the lead guitar needs more power and agression to it for a piece of this nature, but it's ok. Certainly not bad in any way, but not superlative and certainly not distinctive. Would love to hear zyko & Vig comment, but they're rather MIA for the time being, so the main issues I had were in the first paragraph. If y'all want to let zircon take a stab from the production side, best of luck with that. Non-repetitive drums (i.e. write a creative part for it) and louder/sharper sounding guitar for the pass. Still salient issues here with this new version. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Boss" (Robotnik Theme.gym) Some generic-sounding, but well put together stuff for the intro. Nice gated pad going on at :13 with the gradual fade-in. Bass kicks at :23 were rather cheesy, as were the drum kicks at :37, but whatchugonnado? Beats arriving at :41 were pretty lo-fi sounding. Still waiting for something to develop by the 1:00-mark, but there's time. Melody arrives via some robotic e-piano coming in at 1:08. As soon as the lead started playing in chords and getting louder, especially at 1:28, things were just getting cluttered. Looking for the beat structure to change at least a little bit at 1:35, but it didn't happen. Realy need some variation there. Doesn't need to be drastic. Nonetheless, I liked the original section there, as there were some good ideas for the lead. You should try and punch up the foreground material from 1:35-2:16 more and give it more presence. Melody faded back in at 2:17, but took a back seat to support some other material started up at 2:29. Nothing hugely engaging there, but for the genre, this was still some good though formulaic stuff. Still not a fan of the drum kicks at 3:05, and the groove at 3:15 is still by-the-numbers, also leading to what felt like too long a stretch without hearing the source material again until 3:39. And when the melody came back in, it was played yet again by those sames sounds and was drowned out by all the electrosynth activity. Then the source usage stopped again at 4:06. Came back from 4:34 to 4:47 for the finish. The limited usage of the source material was an issue that plagued the track, especially at the end. You really had some good ideas going to kick things off, but after 2:29, the Boss theme became a really limited part of the track. Use the melody more, and develop some more arrangement ideas for it, otherwise you start moving into the "too original" category by the time the track is over. Vary up some of the instrumentation and patterns more since this is such a long piece. Don't retread the ideas here quite so much. Also, I'd like some of the other judges to weigh in on the production side, as this seemed to be missing something. The sound was rather dulled and could be sharpened up, but I can't pinpoint the issue there. Nonetheless, good work so far, JD. I hope you feel encouraged to continue some further work on the track, as this has potential and was an otherwise solid effort. I'd like to see you continue to improve your game and make it back to the front page. NO (resubmit)

http://www.zophar.net/gym/sonic2.rar - "Aquatic Ruin Zone" Decent intro, though rather sparse. The claps at :33 were a good example of that. There's a lot of above average genre stuff going on, but the overall sound is very flimsy/tacky. "The Dance of Aquarius" voice clip at :50 sounded really ghetto, like it was recorded on a crappy mic and then given some weak effects. Way too amateur and trying too hard to sound serious; no offense against you or whoever recorded the clip, but it just sounds like a young teenager recorded it and thought it would sound cool and epic. All things considered, very minor issue, but still meh. Source melody was brought in at 1:16, but the synths used on counterpoint didn't mesh well up to 1:43. There's a lot of good, non-generic ideas here for the track atmosphere, but the production is very, very vanilla and leaves the track sounding unremarkable. What the hell was that "Dance of Aqarius" clip doing in there again at 2:23?!? Then you started doing all these effects on it at 2:26 to make it a focal point of the track, when it sounds straight-up beginner-ish. Meh. All the vocal stuff is just too corny and not well-integrated into the track. Can't believe that got brought back in there; turned a minor issue into a significant one. Regardless of any of that, the main thing that put me off was that the source material wasn't an integral part of the track. Some places where the melody was used in a straightforward manner almost felt like the melody had been stapled on top. Certainly not so with the more creative arrangement like in the intro. Pretty liberal mix going on here. I can hear all the connections involved, but they start going on excessively liberal tangents. You need to actually develop the melody here, not reference it 4 or 5 times and never develop it. Complete lack of a transition at 3:06 which was very abrupt. Melody felt stapled on at 3:21 as the beats behind it had nothing to do with it, just like 1:23-1:43. It was better at :40 when you had the other beats also arranging other instrumental lines from the original in a much more noticeable way. All in all, decent, but a very disjointed track. No real sense of direction or development of the material. NO